The Market of grain legumes in Germany: First results of the EU-project LegValue (727672)

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Forschungsberichte des

Fachbereichs Agrarwirtschaft Soest Nr. 44

The Market of grain legumes in Germany

First results of the EU-project LegValue

Bruno Kezeya Sepngang Wolfgang Stauss

Ina Stute

Marcus Mergenthaler

2 Project LegValue: Fostering sustainable legume-based farming systems and agri-feed and food chain in the EU (Juni 2017 - Mai 2021). Website: http://www.legvalue.eu. This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant

agreement No 727672.

The EU project "LegValue", started on 01-06-2017, has as its main objective the promotion of legume-based cultivation systems and establishment of agri-food chains in the EU. The whole project is coordinated by Fréderic Muel (TERIN, in France). The main task of the project team at the Department of Agriculture is the analysis of the market of legumes in Europe (Work package 3: WP3), supervised by Bruno Kezeya Sepngang under the direction of Prof. Dr. Marcus Mergenthaler. Ina Stute has been working on the project as a correspondent under the direction of Prof. Dr. Bernhard C. Schäfer. Wolfgang Stauss (i.green Institut) supports the project management.

© 2018

Forschungsschwerpunkt:

Agrarökonomie

Fachhochschule Südwestfalen Standort Soest

Fachbereich Agrarwirtschaft Lübecker Ring 2

59494 Soest

Tel.: 02921 / 378-3283 Fax: 02921 / 378-3200 E-Mail: agrar@fh-swf.de www.fh-swf.de/FB/agrar

ISBN (print): 978-3-940956-71-2 ISBN (elektr): 978-3-940956-72-9

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Content

Table of figures ... 4

List of abbreviations ... 7

Abstract ... 8

Deutsche Zusammenfassung ... 9

1. Introduction ... 10

2. Methods ... 11

3. Result and Discussion ... 13

3.1 Description of the legume market heterogeneity ... 13

3.1.1 Field peas ... 13

3.1.2 Faba beans ... 20

3.1.3 Market structure of field peas and faba beans ... 24

3.1.4 Soybean and soybean meal ... 27

3.1.5 Market structure of soybeans ... 30

3.2 Prices information of grain legumes ... 31

4. Conclusions ... 36

References ... 38

Appendix ... 40

List of the interviewed experts ... 40

Interview guidelines ... 42

Unit values for the foreign trade of grain legumes ... 47

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Table of figures

Figure 1: Supply balance of field peas in Germany from 2013 to 2017. There were no data available on the distribution of national consumption (feed, food, seed and loss) for the years 2014 to 2017 (FAO, November 2017). Primary sources: FAO, Eurostat and Destatis. ... 14 Figure 2: Distribution of national consumption of field peas in Germany (2013). Primary sources: FAO (2013). ... 15 Figure 3: The main countries from where Germany imports field peas, from 2013 to 2017. The

illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, March 2017). ... 18 Figure 4: The main countries where Germany exports field peas, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of exports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, March 2017). .... 19 Figure 5: Supply balance of faba beans in Germany from 2013 to 2017. Primary sources: Eurostat and Destatis. ... 20 Figure 6: Germany’s main import countries for faba beans, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated

countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of imports on average over these four years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018). ... 22 Figure 7: The main countries where Germany exports faba beans, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of exports on average over these four years. (**): is previous data fpr this year. (Primary source: Destatis, Mai 2018). ... 23 Figure 8: Flow of goods of field peas and the key stakeholders on the market in Germany. The lighter arrows are the paths for meat production. The blue ones are the handling of grains or transformed grains. ... 24 Figure 9: Supply balance of soybeans in Germany from 2013 to 2017. There is data gap in the

different years. Primary sources: Eurostat, Destatis and FAO. ... 28 Figure 10: Supply balance of soybean meal in Germany from 2013 to 2016. There is data gap in the years 2014, 2015, and 2016. Primary sources: FAO and OVID. ... 29 Figure 11: Market structure of soybeans in Germany. The lighter arrows are the paths for meat production. The blue arrows are the handling of grains or processed grains. ... 30 Figure 12: The evolution of the whole sale prices of field peas and faba beans from 2007 to 2017, in Germany. Primary source: AMI. ... 33 Figure 13: Unit value of field peas imports in Germany with different foreign trade countries. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity from 2013 to 2017. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018). ... 47 Figure 14: Unit value of field peas exports in Germany with different foreign trade countries. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity from 2013 to 2017. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018). ... 48 Figure 15: Unit value of faba beans imports in Germany with different foreign trade countries. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity from 2013 to

5 2017. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018). ... 49 Figure 16: Unit value of faba beans export in Germany with different foreign trade countries. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity from 2013 to 2017. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018). ... 50

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List of tables

Table 1: Aggregated prices of grain legumes in EUR/t for 2013 to 2017 in Germany. These prices are the mean values of the noted monthly prices. Primary source: AMI. ... 32 Table 2: Influencing factors on the supply and demand of grain legumes in Germany. ... 34

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List of abbreviations

AMI: Agrarmarkt information.

BLE: Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung.

BZL: Bundesinformationszentrum Landwirtschaft.

CAP: Common Agricultural policy.

DemoNetErBo: Demonstrationsnetzwerkt Erbse und Bohne.

DESTATIS: Statistisches Bundesamt.

DVT: Deutscher Verband Tierernährung.

EU: European Union.

FAO: Food and Agricultural Organissation.

LLH: Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen.

OVID: Verband der Ölsaatenverarbeitenden Industrie in Deutschland.

WP3: Workpackage 3.

.

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Abstract

The production of domestic legumes can constitute a more sustainable protein source in feeding troughs and food plates in European countries. However, it remains a challenge to realize legumes’

potential in research and practice. The cultivation of legumes provides ecosystem services within crop rotations at the farm level but also at larger scale going beyond farm boundaries. The narrow farm-level economic potential of domestic grain legumes is not comparable to that of cereals and oilseed rape. Furthermore, the practical knowledge among farmers for the cultivation of grain legumes is often missing. These aspects can partly explain the decline in legume crops and the reasons for today's overseas imports of protein-rich soybeans into Europe. Increasing the market transparency of legumes could possibly create incentives to shift priorities to more legume production. In this work, Germany serves as an example to describe one of the major legume markets in Europe. A mixed methodological approach based on quantitative and qualitative analyses was employed in this study. Quantitative data of the analysed parameters production, domestic consumption, imports and exports were obtained from international (Eurostat and FAO) and national (Destatis, AMI, BLE and OVID) databases. Expert interviews were conducted in order to qualify the data obtained and to validate the description of the market structure of grain legumes in Germany.

Besides production, use, exports and imports, price setting systems for grain legumes in Germany were described. In fact, in the EU, 2.1% (2015) and in Germany about 1.06% (2017) of agricultural land was used for the cultivation of pulses for grain production. This very small proportion of legume crops has a low production as a direct consequence. Due to this situation, the trade in domestic grain legumes such as field peas, field beans and lupins has been conducted in niche markets in Germany.

Thus, detailed market information is only known by a small group of stakeholder. A market of grain legumes has to develop with an increasing production. This increased supply of grain legume on the market is mainly due to policy supports. Legumes’ main end use in Germany is for animal feeding, whereby a high proportion of the production is for intra- and inter-farm use. There is a small but emergent market for legumes based products in the food sector in Germany. But they have a marginal proportion of the total supply of grain legumes. Furthermore, it was also found that individual farmers do not have any significant influence on prices as it is common in agricultural commodity markets. In asymmetric trade relations, prices are rather influenced by compound feed producers, processors and traders. They use different models or methods under the consideration of price influencing factors like the production, the end use and prices of substitutes to set the prices.

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Deutsche Zusammenfassung

Körnerleguminosen können eine nachhaltigere Proteinquelle in Futtertrögen und als Lebensmittel in europäischen Ländern darstellen. Es bleibt jedoch eine Herausforderung, das Potenzial von Leguminosen in Forschung und Praxis zu realisieren. Der Anbau von Leguminosen bietet Ökosystemleistungen innerhalb der Fruchtfolge auf der Ebene der landwirtschaftlichen Betriebe, aber auch in größerem Maßstab, die über die Grenzen der landwirtschaftlichen Betriebe hinausgehen, wie z.B. die Verringerung der Nitratbelastung des Grundwassers und die Möglichkeit, Bienen eine Nahrungsquelle zu bieten. Das geringe betriebswirtschaftliche Potenzial von heimischen Körnerleguminosen ist jedoch nicht vergleichbar mit dem von Getreide, welches in der Mischfutterproduktion verwendet wird oder Raps, aus dem Pflanzenöl und Schrot für die Fütterung hergestellt wird. Darüber hinaus fehlt oft das praktische Wissen der Landwirte zum Anbau von Körnerleguminosen. Diese Aspekte erklären zum Teil den Rückgang von Anbauflächen mit Leguminosen. Die Nachfrage nach Eiweißfuttermitteln wird durch Übersee-Importe proteinreicher Sojabohnen nach Europa gedeckt. Eine Erhöhung der Markttransparenz des Leguminosenmarktes könnte möglicherweise Anreize schaffen, die Hülsenfruchtproduktion attraktiver zu machen. Diese Arbeit beschreibt den deutschen Leguminosenmarkt beispielhaft für Europa. In dieser Studie wurden gemischte methodische Methoden angewendet, die auf quantitativen und qualitativen Analysen basieren. Quantitative Daten der analysierten Parameter Produktion, Inlandsverbrauch, Importe und Exporte wurden von internationalen (Eurostat und FAO) und nationalen Datenbanken (Destatis, AMI, BLE und OVID) bezogen. Um die gewonnenen Daten zu qualifizieren und die Beschreibung der Marktstruktur von Körnerleguminosen in Deutschland zu validieren, wurden Experteninterviews durchgeführt. Neben Produktion, Nutzung, Export und Import werden Preissetzungssysteme für Körnerleguminosen in Deutschland beschrieben. Tatsächlich wurden in der EU 2,1% (2015) und in Deutschland etwa 1,06% (2017) der landwirtschaftlichen Flächen für den Anbau von Hülsenfrüchten für die Getreideproduktion genutzt. Aufgrund dieser sehr geringen Produktionsmenge kann der Handel mit heimischen Körnerleguminosen wie Felderbsen, Ackerbohnen und Lupinen als Nischenmärkten in Deutschland beschrieben werden. Detaillierte Marktinformationen sind daher nur kleinen Gruppen von Interessenvertretern bekannt. Der Markt für Körnerleguminosen muss sich mit steigender Produktion entwickeln. Dieser Anstieg der Anbauflächen und damit des Angebotes von Körnerleguminosen auf dem Markt ist hauptsächlich auf politische Unterstützung zurückzuführen.

Das Haupteinsatzgebiet von Leguminosen in Deutschland ist die Tierfütterung, wobei ein hoher Anteil der Produktion für den inner- und zwischenbetrieblichen Gebrauch bestimmt ist. Es gibt in Deutschland einen kleinen, aber aufstrebenden Markt für den Einsatz von Hülsenfrüchten in der Humanernährung. Dieser hat bisher jedoch einen marginalen Anteil an der gesamten Nachfrage.

Außerdem wurde festgestellt, dass einzelne Landwirte nicht in der Lage sind, den Preis zu beeinflussen, wie es allgemein in großen Warenmärkten der Fall ist. In asymmetrischen Handelsstrukturen wird dieser von Mischfutterherstellern, Verarbeitern und Händlern bestimmt. Sie verwenden unterschiedliche Modelle oder Methoden unter Berücksichtigung von Preiseinflussfaktoren wie den Preisen von Substituten, der Produktion und der Endnutzung, um Preise festzulegen.

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1. Introduction

Legumes are a protein-rich crop and play an important role in animal and human nutrition (Abel, 2016). Furthermore, their cultivation generates a range of eco-system services. In crop rotation for example, the nitrogen supply through their rhizobia, the break of pathogen´s life cycle and diseases, the weed control, and the preservation of the biodiversity can be noted (ALPMANN et al., 2013; SPIEGEL

et al., 2014). Nevertheless, their isolated farm-level economic performance excluding crop rotation effects is not comparable to cereals and rape seed, which are also substitutes in compound feeds.

Additionally, the know-how about the cultivation practices of grain legume is limited (SCHMIDTKE &

KLÖBLE, 2013). Furthermore, past and recent policy frameworks have not been favourable for legumes in Europe. These aspects can partly explain the decline in legume acreage and can be the reasons for today´s large import of protein feed into Europe. In fact, 2.1 % of the agricultural land in the EU was dedicated to the growing of dry grain legume in 2015 (EUROSTAT, 2017). The “protein deficit” in Germany in 2015 is estimated by 2.37 million t which represents 65 % of the total protein consumption (SCHMIDT, 2017). This protein deficit is derived from the raw protein imports. According to Destatis, grain legumes covered 1.06 % of the German´s agricultural area in 2017. This very low proportion of legumes cultivated area has as direct consequence a low production in the respective region. Thus, the trade of domestic grain legumes such as field peas, faba beans and lupins in Germany and in Europe has been conducted in niche markets so far (VOISIN et al., 2014).

Consequently, detailed market information is only known by a small group of stakeholders.

The main goal of this report is to provide information for a more transparent and efficient legume market. At the same time, this exemplary market report of grain legumes in Germany is an integral part of the LegValue-project. In this respect, the report should support project correspondents in the various European countries to better understand the focuses of the WP3 (Economic analysis of European legume markets). Indeed, this report should be considered as a guideline for the reports of the other countries. At the end, a summary of all countries and crop specific reports will be used to reach the first two deliverables of the WP3. For the first task (Description of the legume market heterogeneity) the main examined parameters are production, domestic consumption, imports and exports. Several relevant price information schemes for grain legumes in Germany are collected for the second task (Elaboration of price setting schemes for legumes markets) of the WP3. For these investigations, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to contextualize and qualify the collected data from different databases.

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2. Methods

Field peas (Ger. Felderbse/Futtererbse, lat. Pisum sativum, subsp arvense), broad and field beans also known as faba bean (Ger. Puff- und Ackerbohne, lat. Vicia faba) and soybeans (Ger. Sojabohne, lat.

Glycine max) including soybean meal were the investigated grain legumes in this report. Field peas and faba bean were selected based on their higher total production and soybeans were chosen because of the huge quantity of their national consumption in Germany. A mixed methodological investigation was undertaken in this study. Several data bases, international (Eurostat and FAO) and national (Destatis, AMI, BLE and OVID), were explored and used for a basic quantitative description of the German grain legume market. The investigated period was from 2013 to 2017.

Quantitative analysis:

The collected secondary data have been drafted in an integrated database structure in excel. These data are aggregated for the whole market in Germany.

The data for the production were collected from the EU-database Eurostat, directly under http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.do or indirect through http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database -> Agriculture, forestry and fisheries -> Agriculture (t_agr) -> Agricultural production (t_apro). Numerically, the parameter production is the product of cultivated area and yield. These two parameters, cultivated area and yield, can also be explored through the ways mentioned above.

The quantities, values, and foreign trade countries of the imports and exports for field peas, faba beans and soybeans are obtained by Destatis (Statistisches Bundesamt). The data of the year 2017 are provisional. According to the report on the quality of the foreign trade data for Destatis (QUALITÄTSBERICHT, 2017), the percentage of missing data after the first publication is very small, so that the data can be used for an analysis. The description of the way until the data is:

www.destatis.de -> Database GENESIS -> Themes -> 51/Foreign trade -> 51000 -> 51000-0013 (for the yearly foreign trade) / 51000-0016 (for the foreign trade countries) -> select the years and the commodity Class by enter *WA0713*(for faba beans and field peas) or *WA120* (for Soyabeans) as code in the box below “Attributes”, than validate the selected code by clicking on the Display field (on the right side the box below “Sort key” -> then chose the interested crops -> accept -> Value retrieval. The foreign trade data for soybean meal are partially collected from the FAO (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home -> Explored Data -> Food Balance -> Food balance Sheets) and OVID (http://www.ovid-verband.de/unsere-branche/daten-und-grafiken/). In some cases, the national consumptions were calculated based on the production, imports and exports. Only the repartition of the national consumption (food, feed, processed, seed and loss) for the year 2013 for field peas and soybeans could be obtained by FAO, through the way described above.

Qualitative analysis:

The obtained data were analysed to identify information gaps and to quantify the market of grain legumes in Germany. In order to close information gaps and to highlight open questions, expert interviews with diverse stakeholders, including experts from agronomic research were undertaken.

In total, 16 experts were interviewed (see in the appendix). Due to their experiences and their current occupations, they are considered as experts in legumes in Germany. Data from the qualitative expert interviews were used to qualify the quantitative data analysis and to validate the

12 schemes of the flow of goods of grain legumes in Germany. The interviews were semi-structured, this means in this case that a flexible sequence of questions has been followed and the duration of each interview has been adapted to the specific circumstances. As consequence, each interview partner had a wide flexibility to interact. The used language was German.

The first semi-structured interview wave was done by three of the authors of this report. The interviews were conducted separately and the records were done by writing. This happened in December 2017 and the duration of each interview was estimated by 30 minutes on average. To close this section, an intern workshop at the FH-SWF with the three interviewed partners and three other scientific assistants was undertaken. The workshop was guided by a power point presentation with several quantitative data and open questions that were discussed during the workshop. It took around 90 minutes and the record was done by the digital voice recorder DM-670 from the trademark Olympus. These “face to face” guided surveys and the intern workshop were useful to gain more confidence in the topic and to optimise the interview guideline of the survey with the stakeholders.

The second semi-structured interview wave was done with stakeholders by telephone. This happened in February and March 2018 and the duration of each interview was 27 minutes on average with widths from 17 to 57 minutes. What is more, the records were done by audiotape.

Thirteen actors from different sectors of activities and different regions were interviewed: breeders, famers, cooperatives, traders, processor and compound feed producers. Four interview guidelines were developed to guide the stakeholder specific interviews (see the interview guidelines in the appendix). A comparison of the respective interview results was conducted in an anonymous way by a structuring content analysis. Basic categories for the analysis where derived deductively from the literature. The basic categories were complemented inductively during data analysis by additional subcategories. The used tool is a so-called “synthesis matrix”. The statements were assigned to the units, structured in terms of content and then paraphrased, generalized and reduced. This synthesis matrix served as the basis for a discussion. An alternative to this tool is the MAXQDA-software that is more complex and could be able to quantify automatically the statements of the qualitative analyses.

Due to the small sample of the interviewed actors, the synthesis matrix is also appropriate and easier for the analysis of the obtained data.

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3. Result and Discussion

According to Eurostat, the production of dry legumes and protein crops for the production of grain (including seed and mixtures of cereals and legumes) has increased in the last five years, from 225,600 t in the year 2013 to 571,000 t in 2017. In 2017 field peas (298,000 t) and faba beans (188,000) were the most produced grain legumes in Germany, followed by soybeans with 65,700 t and sweet lupins with 52,000 t. Although the cultivated area of sweet lupins (29,000 ha) is still higher than this for soybeans (19,100 ha), the amount of produced soybeans has surpassed this of sweet lupins.

3.1 Description of the legume market heterogeneity

Field peas are the most produced grain legume in Germany. According to AMI (2018), 7 % of the cultivated area of field peas in 2016 was produced organically. This means that the largest share of cultivated field peas in Germany is conventional. The share of organic cultivated area of soybeans (22 %), faba beans (31 %) and lupins (33.2 %) in the same year was higher than this for field peas.

Experts explain this discrepancy with the longer recommended break in cultivation of field peas. Field peas have a recommended break in cultivation of eight years while it is only five to six years for faba beans. Therefore a maximum cultivation area in specific crop rotations is given for agronomic reasons. Other experts do not agree and state that the subject break in cultivation should also concern conventional farming. The diseases derive from the soil and could not be completely controlled by the application of pesticides. The experts agreed that the share of organic field peas is smaller than those for faba beans, lupins and soybeans in Germany, because peas grow on good soil or locations and organic farms tend to be in locations with poor soil conditions. On the other hand, it should be noted that there is probably a survey error in the estimated numbers, as a lot of winter peas are grown as intercrops mostly with oat in organic farming, which are not included here. As intercropped peas are harvested jointly with oat and no technical and financially feasible post- harvest separation is possible, intercropped peas will not constitute part of the pea supply in aggregate markets. Therefore, the estimated 7 % of field peas in cultivated area in organic farms seems smaller than in the reality, but should still stay smaller than those for faba beans, lupins and soybeans.

The smallest amount of protein content of peas compared to the other grain legumes can be another aspect to explain this result. Due to the fact that there are fewer alternatives of protein sources in organic farms, the cultivation of grain legumes with higher protein content like faba beans and lupins is more attractive on organic farms. On the market level, the biggest processor of field peas in Germany, Emsland-Stärke (Eng.: Emsland-Group), only deals with conventional peas at the moment.

Emsland-Stärke processed more than 75,000 t field peas in the year 2016. That represents around 1/4 of the total national consumption of field peas in Germany. This concentrated and substantial demand is considerably higher than demand from a single market actor for faba bean or domestic soya.

Figure 1 shows the aggregated supply balance of field peas (P. sativum) in Germany from 2013 to 2017. The production of field peas has been increasing continuously, from around 130,000 t in 2013 to 298,000 t in 2017. Cultivated area of peas has decreased from 85,500 ha in 2017 to 74,900 ha in 2018. Assuming the same yield levels as in 2017 this would correspond to a production of around

14 261,000 t in 2018. The leap of the production between 2014 and 2015 is mainly caused by the new greening measures of the common agricultural policy (CAP) that started its implementation in 2015.

The CAP introduced the direct payment to farmers who grow legumes, as legumes cultivated areas are considered as ecological focus areas. Their weighting factor has increased from 0.7 to the factor 1.0 at the same time not allowing plant protection products any more (Wobser, 2018). Not being able to use plant protection products on peas make them less attractive to conventional farmers.

This can mainly explain the expected decrease in cultivated area and in production from 2017 to 2018.

Figure 1: Supply balance of field peas in Germany from 2013 to 2017. There were no data available on the distribution of national consumption (feed, food, seed and loss) for the years 2014 to 2017 (FAO, November 2017). Primary sources: FAO, Eurostat and Destatis.

The decline in national consumption in 2016 is linked to the strong increase in exports and the decrease in imports from 2015 to 2016. By looking at the increasing trend of the export during the years, it can be deduced that the increased production has led to pressure on domestic market prices, which improved the competitiveness in international markets for exports. This opened up further markets abroad. At the same time imports became less attractive for foreign suppliers. From 2013 to 2017, except the year 2016 the national consumption of field peas was higher than its production indicating higher imports than exports and self-sufficiency between 63 % and 87 %. The trend of the national consumption also increased until 2015. According to the experts, up to the increase in cultivated areas due to greening, almost the volume of the entire produced German peas was processed by the company Emsland-Stärke. Because of risks related to GMO crops, Emsland- Stärke has stopped processing Canadian peas, worrying about cross-contamination by means of transport. This could be an argument for the decline of the imported peas in Germany from 2014 to

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

quantity (in 1000t)

time

03 Production 04 Import 06 Export

08 National consumption 09 Feed

10 Food 11 Seed 13 Loss

15 2016. In addition to this, the greening effect on domestic production as of 2015 could also explain this decrease in importation of field peas in Germany. In 2017 the foreign trade showed a reverse situation, the decrease in exports and increase in imports. Year to year fluctuations indicate that trade is not conducted in stable and established trade relations but is rather driven by spot market mechanisms.

Based on the FAO (2013), the main use of field peas in Germany is for feed with 75 % of the national consumption; followed by the use for food with 18 % (Figure 2). The experts mention that the share for food has an increasing trend today. This is caused by the increase in vegetarian and vegan consumers and the increase in the processing of peas to starch extraction. It was mentioned that the loss is not a remarkably in this sector.

Figure 2: Distribution of national consumption of field peas in Germany (2013). Primary sources: FAO (2013).

In the marketing year 2013/2014, 16,000 t field peas were used as raw material by compound feed manufacturers. This represents 0.1 % of the total compound feed in Germany. In the marketing year 2015/2016, it doubled to 0.2 % which corresponds to 40,000 t but dropped to 30,000 t in 2016/17 (BMEL). Estimation for 2017/18 stand at 29,000 t (BLE 2018). This varying and marginal share of field peas in the compound feed is firstly due to its low total production compared to the major components in compound feed. Secondly, the uncertain supply of field peas is said to be an obstacle of their processing in compound feed. Still more than doubling in one year shows that the compound feed industries are able to process increasing amounts of field peas into their formulations of compound feed. Cultivation based on contracts or other measures to stabilize the supply of peas by feed manufacturers play only a marginal role yet. No up-to-date public price information system is available yet to give indications of market over- or undersupply of peas.

The largest share of field peas is used intra- or inter-farm. Comparing the national production of field peas and the total of its monthly purchase for the harvest years 2015 (BLE&BZL-DATENZENTRUM), it can be observed that 126,000 t of the 276,800 t produced in 2015 were sold by the farmers outside farming, which corresponds to 45 % of the yearly production. In 2016, 122,400 t of the 290,000 t produced in this year (42 %) were sold by the farmers outside farming. These results show that the

Feed 75%

Food 18%

Seed 5%

Loss 2%

16 rest, around 55 % of the produced field peas, are for intra- and inter-farm use. This intra- and inter- farm use of field peas is mostly for feed. Experts could not confirm these numbers indicating a highly fragmented and nontransparent farm-to-farm marketing of peas. On the other side experts assume that the value of legumes in on-farm produced compound feed is higher compared to peas entering compound feed via professional compound feed manufacturers. This could be related to shorter transportation distances for inter- and intra-farm use of peas in highly fragmented markets. Low amounts of field peas entering professional feed manufacturers formulations is related to fragmented markets for peas and a lack of scale-economies in their logistics. For other grain legumes like faba bean and lupin the situation regarding inter- and intra farm use in feed is similar to field peas.

Pig and poultry are the main targeted animals for pea-containing feeds. The amount of useful raw protein of pea in dairy cattle feed is not sufficient for higher performance and the ration must be supplemented with other protein carriers (FREITAG et al., 2006). Therefore, pea-containing feeds are not so attractive for ruminants.

Foreign trade of field peas is more important compared to those of faba beans. While the export of field peas from Germany between the years 2013 and 2016 increased (19,000 t to 75,000 t) which corresponds to 15 % and 26 % of domestic production in the respective years, its import decreased (110,000 t to 70,000 t; 85 % and 24 % of domestic production). These imports and exports (Figure 1) include those for seeds.

Figure 3 shows the countries from which Germany had imported field peas in the years 2013 to 2017.

In this graph, the very small amount of seeds is excluded. France, Belgium, Netherlands and the Czech Republic were on average the main origins of the imported field peas to Germany over the years 2013 to 2017 (Figure 3). These are neighboring countries to Germany. They were followed by Lithuania, Poland and Estonia. Czech Republic (18,057 t), Poland (14,481 t) and France (13,707 t) were the three main origins of the imported field peas in Germany in 2017, followed by Russia (6,474 t) and Luxembourg (6,335 t). Except from Czech Republic and Poland, the trends of the import quantity from the other countries were decreasing. Experts explain the continuous increase of import from Poland and Czech Republic with geographic reasons. Emsland-Stärke has a location in Golße where around 30,000 t peas are processed yearly. Golße is nearer to these two countries than to the other neighboring countries indicating that transportation costs might play a role.

Based to the figure 3, the Netherlands and Belgium were the main origins of the German field pea import in 2013. According to the FAO, each of these two countries did not produce more than 3,000 t in this year. Instead they imported enough field peas, 50,320 t for the Netherlands and 140,615 t for Belgium. This leads to the conclusion that Netherlands and Belgium were international trading hubs for the imported field peas in Germany. This can explain the statement of an expert about the huge amount of the imported field peas from Canada by the starch company Emsland-Stärke until the years 2014. According to Destatis, only 1630 t of field peas were imported directly from Canada, whereas the rest would enter Germany via the Netherlands and Belgium. Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium are the main sea ports where Canadian peas enter into the EU.

Figure 4 presents the main countries where Germany exports field peas, from 2013 to 2017. India and the Netherlands were the main importers of German´s field peas on average over the years 2013 to 2017. They were followed by Pakistan, Italy, Switzerland and Lithuania. The principal destination

17 of the exports from Germany in 2017 was India with 27,528 t. This represents half of the total export of field peas in Germany for the year 2017. Many sources show a high consumption of lens in India as food, too. Furthermore, experts estimated the share of vegetarians in India by more than 30 %.

Combined with the previous result, it suggests that India offers a big market opportunity for grain legumes. Hardly any knowledge is available about final use, specific quality and volume requirements and import regulations of peas in India. Potential markets of field peas in Lithuania and Pakistan had been observed in 2016, but they were regressed in 2017. There is no data available for India and Pakistan for the years before 2016. The Netherlands also showed a big interest in German´s field peas in 2016. According to the experts the main use there is for feed, yet still constituting marginal share for similar reasons like in Germany. Probably, the GMO problematic in the Netherlands could explain the exponential increasing of field peas export from Germany to the Netherlands in 2016.

Equally to the exports to Lithuania and Pakistan, this market also regressed in 2017. In general, information about use of field peas in destination countries was scarce, scattered and uncertain.

18 Figure 3: The main countries from where Germany imports field peas, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*): is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, March 2017).

12589

19497,1 9046,9

15804,5

32187,4 17824,98

1424,6 3158 2847,5

5461,4 3246,6 3227,62 1168,3 793,6

2918,9 5270

14481,4 4926,44

10719,8 9225,6 3055,5

5469,9 4917,5

6677,66 3191,6

7442,7

14425 16275,4

18057 11878,34

33474,1 23348,2

5860,1 4832 4053

14313,48

24662,9

30829 21797

1499,8 2143,8

16186,5 18782,8 17668,1

23219,3 12268,8

13707,8

17129,36

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø

Other Countries (Ø 16%)*Estonia (Ø 3,5 %)*Poland (Ø 5,4 %)*Lithuania (Ø 7,3 %)*Czech Republic (Ø 13 %)*Netherlands (Ø 15,7 %)*Belgium (Ø 17,7 %)*France (Ø 18,7 %)*

Import quantity in t

19 Figure 4: The main countries where Germany exports field peas, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of exports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, March 2017).

2531,9 1792,9

2563,2

6734,4 4741,9 3672,86 1,6

25,2 142,2

3710,7 0,1

775,96 1528 1364

1771,3 2634,7 1477,6

1755,12 3105,9

4703,2 3982,1 3995 3206,9

3798,62 3994 750

3994 3674,9 3665,4

8601,4

22879,3 3451,4

8454,48

19918

27528,5 23723,25

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø

Other Countries (Ø 8,2 %)*Lithuania (Ø 1,7 %)*Switzerland (Ø 3,8 %)*Italy (Ø 8,2 %)*Pakistan (Ø 8,6 %)*Netherlands (Ø 18,3 %)*India (Ø 51,3 %)*

export quantity in t

20 3.1.2 Faba beans

Faba bean is the second most produced grain legume in Germany. According to AMI (2018), in 2016 31 % of the cultivated area of faba beans was organic farming. This means that around 70 % of the cultivated faba beans in Germany in 2016 were from conventional farming. Compared to the share of the cultivated field peas in organic farming (7 %), those for faba beans (31 %) are very high. The possible reasons for this difference are detailed in chapter 3.1.1.

Figure 5 shows the aggregated supply balance of faba beans (Vicia faba) in Germany from 2013 to 2017. The production of faba bean increased continuously, from around 60,000 t in 2013 to 190,000 t in 2017. This tripling of the production is mainly caused by the greening measures of the common agricultural policy (CAP), started its implementation in 2015 that considered legumes cultivated areas as ecological focus area. In addition, many federal states in Germany (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony- Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia) offer supplementary subsidies within programs like the

“diverse crop rotation” (Ger. Vielfältige Fruchtfolge) as impulses for the cultivation of legumes.

Figure 5: Supply balance of faba beans in Germany from 2013 to 2017. Primary sources: Eurostat and Destatis.

The trend of the national consumption is increasing. In contrast to field peas, the production of faba beans remained slightly higher than its national consumption. The level of self-sufficiency with faba bean was between 100 % and 105 % in the years from 2013 to 2017. Based on the production, 7 % of faba beans were exports while 4 % were imported in average between 2013 and 2017. Despite the lower percentage of foreign trade in faba beans compared to field peas, it can be seen that there is a relative growth of imports and exports. Comparable to the situation for field peas, it would be

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

quantity (in 1000t)

time

03 Production 04 Import 06 Export

08 National consumption

21 assumed that the increased production has increased the relative competitiveness of faba beans through reduced prices and thereby opened up further markets abroad: increasing of exports. The experts speculated that near-border compound feed factories buy goods from neighbouring countries to ensure a uniform feed ration, when the regional, domestic market offers too little supply. That can explain the fact that even Germany imports faba beans.

By comparing the national production of faba beans and the total of its monthly purchase for the harvest year 2015 (BLE&BZL-DATENZENTRUM, 2017), it can be observed that 52,000 t of the 133,000 produced in 2015 were sold by farmers to traders or processors. This represents 39 % of the yearly production. In 2016, 47,000 t of the 154,000 t produced in this year (30.5 %) were sold by the farmers to traders or processors. These results show that around 65 % of the produced faba beans are for intra- and inter farm-use. The main targeted animals to feed are pig, poultry (vicine and convicine free varieties), dairy cattle (toasted faba beans), and bull fattening. Experts estimated the ration feed/food of faba beans by 90/10. This mean that the use of faba beans in feed is higher than this of field peas with an estimated feed/ food ratio of less than 75/25. In the marketing year 2014/2015, 14,000 t faba beans were used as raw material by the mixed feed manufacturer. This represents 0.1 % of the total compound feed in Germany. In the marketing year 2015/2016, it doubled to 0.2 %, with a use of 38,000 t of faba beans. In 2016/17 it further increased to 44,000 t (BMEL 2018). Preliminary numbers for 2017/18 show an amount of 38,000 t (BLE 2018). It indicates that higher availability and lower prices make faba beans also attractive for compound feed manufacturers.

The foreign trade of faba beans is not as high as those for field peas. Around 10,900 t were imported to Germany in 2017 as compared to 96,100 t for field peas. Lithuania (5,587 t), Poland (2,066 t) and Estonia (1,036 t) were the three main origins of the imported faba beans in Germany in 2017. Figure 6 shows the countries from which Germany imported faba beans from 2013 to 2017. On average over these five years, Lithuania (37.4 %), Poland (15.0 %), Estonia (12.7 %), Netherlands (6 %) and Denmark (5.7 %) were the main exporters of faba beans to Germany. The figure 6 outlines a progressive increasing of faba beans imports from Lithuania, Poland and Estonia while there is a higher year to year fluctuation in imports from the other countries. The main reason for the continuous growths in Lithuania and Poland is probably due to the exponential increase in the production in the last years.

In total, Germany exported around 11,400 t of faba beans in the year 2017. The main destinations of the exports from Germany in 2017 were Italy (6,415 t) and Austria (1,966 t). Figure 7 shows the countries where Germany exported faba beans in the years 2013 to 2017. In this connection, it should be noted that Egypt has had a progressive interest in German faba beans from 2014 to 2016.

The exported faba beans through the Hamburg-port are mainly cultivated in the Weser-Elbe area (Northwest of Germany) and are led by the company Fava trade. There was a big decrease in this market in 2017 to observe. Experts spoke of a lack of quality of faba beans due to the heavy infestation of filed beetles in 2017. The most important requirement for this foreign trade is the absence of living faba beans beetles and seeds damaged by this pest in the goods because the imported faba beans in Egypt will be used for food. As consequence of this lack of quality, the export to Italy raised in 2017. This for the use as feed with less quality requirement. Furthermore, the experts considered the rising currency strength of the Euro as a possible obstacle of the exports to Egypt.

22 Figure 6: Germany’s main import countries for faba beans, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of imports on average over these five years. (Primary source: Destatis, April 2018).

693,8 119

366

1210,7 586,1

597,375 0,1

3,2 11,8

885,3 4

180,88 3,9

127,1 373,1

758,3 0,8

252,64 524,4 79

362,8 259,7

425,2 330,22 196,1 91,7

727,4 425,4 273,5

342,82 191,9

960,7 1036,2 729,6 177,1

491,6 586,9

1003,7

2065,7 865

1494,1 531,9

731,7

2416,7

5586,8 2152,24

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø

Other Countries (Ø 12,8 %)*France (Ø 3,1 %)*Italy (Ø 4,4 %)*Denmark (Ø 5,7 %)*Netherlands (Ø 6 %)*Estonia (Ø 12,7 %)*Poland (Ø 15 %)*Lithuania (Ø 37,4 %)*

Import quantity in t

23 Figure 7: The main countries where Germany exports faba beans, from 2013 to 2017. The illustrated countries are ranked descending in terms of their average of trade quantity over these five years. (*):

is the share of exports on average over these five years. (**): is previous data for this year. (Primary source: Destatis, Mai 2018).

1022,8 444,8

957,2

1530,3 1217,9 1034,6 350,2

81,7 453,1 100,6 96,3

216,38 328,9 203,3

427,8 555 203,3

343,66 498,2 337

368,5 305,8

535,7 409,04 138

528,1

2050,5 450

791,65 810,3 109

838,5

1811,2 1965,7 1106,94

1410,2 1245,3

1810,8 2307,8 563,3

1467,48 1049,4

1251,9

4753 3492,8

6414,8 3392,38

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Ø

Other Countries (Ø 11,8 %)*United Kingdom (Ø 2,5 %)*Denmark (Ø 3,9 %)*Switzerland (Ø 4,7 %)*Egypt (Ø 9 %)*Austria (Ø 12,6 %)*Netherlands (Ø 16,7 %)*Italy (Ø 38,7 %)*

Export quantity in t

24 Figures 13 to 16 in the appendix show the unit values of field peas and faba beans for imports and export in Germany with different foreign trade countries. These values are calculated from the values of import or export and the respective foreign trade quantities. The unit values could be useful as price indicator for the markets abroad.

3.1.3 Market structure of field peas and faba beans

This chapter is dedicated to analyse the market structure of the domestic grain legumes in Germany.

The first goal of this section is to understand how the legumes goods are flowing on the market, which actors are involved and their roles on the market. Secondly, it will help to highlight some value chains of grain legumes. Figure 8 shows an overview of the market structure for grain legumes in Germany on the basis of field peas as example. The key players represented here are farmers to end- users through the traders and processors. The scheme is contextualized with the statements of the interviewed partners. The flow of goods could not be quantified for each sector of activity. But the width of the arrows is an estimation of the volume flows.

Figure 8: Flow of goods of field peas and the key stakeholders on the market in Germany. The lighter arrows are the paths for meat production. The blue ones are the handling of grains or transformed grains.

25 Description of the market structure of field peas in Germany:

a) a1) Internal use: this is an important legume path because of its high value added as no intermediaries have to be paid any margins. It can be differentiated into intra-farm use where grain legumes are used on the same farm as feed.

a2) Internal use -> Abattoirs: This path shows the way of meat consumption. The fed animals through the own produced grain legumes come later in the abattoirs.

a) Farmers -> Livestock owner: This path represents the direct marketing between grain legume producing farm and an animal keeping grain legume feeding farm. This is inter- farm use between different farmers. For this, the livestock owners need their own mixed feed equipment (similar to "h"). The smaller the distance between the produced farmers and the livestock owner is, the more economical this marketing way is. These markets are highly intransparent and spatially fragmented. Minor parts of grain legumes are

traded via online platforms like leguminosenmarkt.de.

b) Farmers -> Feed processing industries: Direct sales from farmers to feed manufacturers.

This way is formally institutionalized by different contracts. Four types of contracts were identified in this investigation: pre-contract before the sowing, pre-contract before the harvest, contract after the harvest and tonnage contract. By the tonnage contract, only the quantity is saved and the later market prices are considered. The type of contract that is most prevalent could not be identified here.

c) Feed processing industries -> Farmers: Farmers who bring their peas to feed manufacturers for processing and then use it in their own feed. In contrast to the livestock owners of the arrow "b", they do not have any equipment to mix their own feed. This situation could happen more to the organic farmers because they are more reliant on legumes than conventional farmers.

Examples for compound feed producers: Raiffeisen Vital Sauerland Hellweg Lippe eG, Gründleinsmühle GmbH, Kaisermühle Gänheim Otmar Kaiser GmbH, Meika Animal Nutrition GmbH, BKF Belziger Kraftfutter GmbH, German Animal Nutrition Cremer GmbH & Co. KG, Bio Eichenmühle GmbH & Co. KG, Ceravis AG and H. Bröring GmbH &

Co. KG). More examples can be found on the homepage of the Germany´s legumes network DemonetErBo.

d) Farmers -> Traders, Brokers, Collectors, and cooperatives: Sale to the agricultural trade and cooperatives, which will eventually assume a bundling function between producers and other market players (see arrows "h, i, j, k, l"). A clear separation between the two stakeholders mentioned above with the brokers and collectors is difficult. It seems that there are no brokers and collectors yet who are specialized on legumes.

Example of agricultural cooperatives: Dreher Agrarrohstoffe GmbH, Ceravis AG, Reiffeisen Weser-Elbe eG, Stader Saatzucht eG, AHG Agrarhandelsgesellschafte GmbH + Co. Warenvertriebs KG and Marktgemeinschaft Ökoflur GmbH. Cooperatives:

Marktgesellschaft der Naturland Bauern AG, marketing company Bio Baueern GmbH, Rheinische Ackerbohne, marketing company Bioland Naturprodukte mbH & Co KG. This way of selling in a group give the farmers more negotiating and market power in such a niche like the legume market.

e) Farmers -> Food processing industries: Sale to the food processing industry, which has the necessary technology for processing. This way is usually regulated by cultivation contracts (see “c”). The quality requirements here are stricter (cleanliness, freedom from beetles, humidity). The most important customer of this sector in Germany is Emsland-

26 Stärke, with more than 75,000 t of processed peas to starch per year. This represents 1/4 of the produced field peas in Germany.

f) Seed production: 5% of total production (FAO, 2013). Example of grain legume breeder:

NPZ, KWS, Limagrain.

g1) Green manure: Traditionally, the use of grain legumes in mixed crops in organic farming has a great importance. Due to the occurrence of soil-borne diseases in peas, the cultivation of grain legumes in the mixed crop had to be severely limited. At least this concerned farmers that cultivated peas, possibly also faba beans, as their main crop.

g) Traders, brokers, collectors, and cooperatives -> Livestock owner: Sale of the grain legumes from the agricultural cooperative or the private trading companies to the livestock owners. For this, the livestock owners need their own mixed feed facility (similar to "b").

h) Traders, brokers, collectors, and cooperatives -> Feed processing industries: Sale of the grain from the agricultural cooperative or private trading companies to the compound feed industry, which possess the necessary technology for processing. Example: see "d"

and "e". Some cooperatives and private trading companies are also feed producers at the same time.

i) Traders, brokers, collectors, and cooperatives -> Food processing industries: Sale of the grain legumes from private trading companies or the agricultural cooperative to the food processing industry (example, see "f"). The quality requirements here are stricter (cleanliness, freedom from beetles, humidity). Therefore the prices here are higher than those for the feed processing.

j) Traders, brokers, collectors, and cooperatives -> Food manufacturers: Direct sale of the grain legumes from private trading comapnies to the food manufacturers such as Müllers Mühle, which ultimately process the raw materials for food purposes.

k) Food processing industries -> Feed processing industries: Use of food production residues in feed production. This includes the targeted production of protein concentrates after the separation of starch, which partly ends up in feed production.

l) Food processing industries -> Non-food processing industries: In the processing of peas (e.g. Emsland-Stärke) the shells are used for the production of fibers. Despite their marginal importance, further utilizations like the production of paints, adhesives and foils by the protein could present the diverse use of pea in the non-food area.

m) Feed processing industries -> livestock owner: Direct sale of the processed feed to the livestock owners.

o & p) Feed processing industries -> Feed traders & Feed traders -> livestock owner: Indirect sale of the processed grain peas (feed) to the livestock owners by feed distributors. It should be mentioned that most feed processors have their own trading center.

27 q) Food processing industries -> Food retailer: Direct sale of processed grain pea (isolates) to food retailers, e.g. wrapped grain pea. For this the difference between the varieties is to be considered.

r & s) Food processing industries -> Food manufacturers & Food manufacturers -> Food retailers: Indirect sale of processed grain peas (isolates) to food retailers through the food manufacturers. At this intermediate stage, the peas are processed into foods, finished products or mixed with other products.

t) Food manufacturers -> Consumers: Direct sales from the food manufacturer to the end consumer, if there is a sales outlet or direct sale; for example, on large orders from restaurants, refectories and hotels. The online marketing (such as “Amazon” and “All you need”) of certain products such as the green pea flour from "Müllers Mühle", which is not offered continuously, also provides a possibility of direct marketing.

u) Food retailers -> consumers: Sale in the food retailers (REWE, EDEKA, LIDL, ALDI, etc.) to end consumers.

v - z) Pathway from the livestock owner through the abattoirs to the end consumer.

c & f) The supply of small quantity from individual farmers is a barrier for the legume market.

The formation of cooperatives to ensure a larger supply quantity is an efficient solution.

a, b & d) These three arrows represent the intra- and inter-farm use of grain legumes. This represents about 55 % of the total production of peas and about 65 % of the total produced field bean in Germany.

a2, v, w, x, y & z) These represent the value chain of the meat. The reason for including these areas of activity is the quality criteria of the meat, such as GMO-free products and the regionality, which are important for the consumers nowadays. Hereby, the added value created by the feed consumption (of domestic grain legumes) is further communicated to the end user.

This scheme could also be representative for the market structure of field beans. The biggest difference will be the marked narrowing of production for human food purposes. On the demoNetErBo website there is a list of some market players, including private trading companies, feed producers, processor and feed traders (demoneterbo.agrarpraxisforschung.de).

3.1.4 Soybean and soybean meal

The production of soybeans in Germany is much lower than its import. 43,000 t and 60,000 t were produced in the years 2016 and 2017 whereas imports stood at more than 3 million t. According to Destatis (2017), 22 % of the cultivated area of soybeans in 2016 was organic. This means that around three quarters of the cultivated soybeans in Germany are conventional. Equally to the data of the share of ecological cultivated area for field peas (7 %), faba beans (31 %) and lupins (33 %), experts emphasized that these data should be considered as estimations (see chapter 3.1.1). In comparison with the share of ecological cultivated area for cereals (3.8 %) with those for wheat estimated by 2 % (AMI, 2018), it is clear that those for grain legumes are very high in Germany. This confirms the statements of many experts about the future of legumes in organic farming: “Due to the lack of (or